This is a movie I will watch (& I don’t watch too many). The two boys in “The Other Son” have been raised to resent and hate each other, and now find out that they are each other. The “Jewish” boy is not Jewish, the rabbi explains to him, because his mother was not Jewish. The boy protests that he has been an observant Jew for every day of his life. Not good enough, the rabbi regrets. The boy has only to take a few more steps and he can convert. The boy is outraged–he, a lifelong Jew, must convert to Judaism?
What if money was no object? [Video]
The History of the Profile Pictures [Article]
Andrew Sullivan links to two articles that trace the history of the now common profile picture
Microbes & Immune Systems [Book Review]
In these days of instant everything, we need evidence to support any claims (forget centuries-old, traditional ways of life), while propaganda (of all sorts) is quickly accepted as fact (Doubt it? Do you use toothpaste? How much do you know about what’s in it?). Author Moises Velasquez-Manoff, a sufferer of asthma, hay fever, food allergies & alopecia (hair loss, in case you wondered!), & fascinated with the prevalence of allergies in recent times despite improved sanitation, hygiene, vaccines & antibiotics, crossed over into Tijuana, Mexico, to infect himself with hookworms in an attempt to cure himself. He came out of it with a book, “An Epidemic of Absence”, a cure for his sinuses, no extra hair growth, & demonstrating among other things that:
- “microbes are neither good nor bad, but can be either or both depending on the context in which we encounter them. And the real cause of the allergy and autoimmune epidemic is that we have severely screwed up that context, both inside our guts and outside in the rest of the environment . [linked via Ars Technica]
- Allergic and autoimmune conditions are far more frequent in rich countries than poor ones, even among genetically identical populations [linked via NYTimes]
Felix Baumgartner’s jump visualised [Image]
You’ll have already heard of Felix Baumgartner’s incredible jump from the edge of outer space [click here if you haven’t seen it yet, without any of the nuisance commentaries from news anchors, & to know how painstakingly elaborate the whole procedure was!]. And to get a visual idea of how high he really was, check out image created by Johnnie Manzari.
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Tubes – aka Internet [Book Review]
Wired Magazine’s Andrew Blum is the author of a book called Tubes – as this review of the book by the New York Times assures, it is an interesting journey through this relatively recent, addictive, & fascinating invention of modern times.
Soviet style internet .. in the US [Developing Story]
According to a document from one of the largest telco’s in the US, AT&T will start blocking access to information for customers who have been flagged for copyright infringement. Imagine that you share, on book-face, a link that you find interesting. If someone were to claim a copyright on the article, & you were included in the list of “wrongfully” sharing it, you could lose the ability to even access your favorite social network site. AT&T will turn its customers in
Story-telling in pictures [article]
Many of us use Microsoft Excel’s charting feature to analyse/ present numerical information. In this article, while explaining his preference for a certain type of chart over another, the author demonstrates how a story can be effectively told without adding ‘chart junk’.
Getting an education [links]
The Internet has decimated the distribution system in a whole range of industries – newspapers, advertising, ideas sharing, communication, telecommunications etc. Education hasn’t been spared either. There are hundreds of online courses that offer specialised or general education courses, (Khan Academy, Coursera are a couple of examples). It has spawned what are called MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from the likes of Harvard, Stanford, & other big-dollar universities, who don’t want to lose their advantage (& their revenues). Adding to the list, MRUniversity is offering a free economics education. Here’s a current collection of 530 free online courses, something might catch your fancy!
Live in Oslo – Thelonious Monk [Music]
For you jazz lovers, an hour of pianist Thelonious Monk, tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist Larry Gales, and drummer Ben Riley performing live in Oslo (1966). And if you aren’t familiar with jazz, here’s Louis Armstrong & Thelonious Monk among others giving a 45-minute child’s introduction to Jazz